Political answers will come when we build a network of solidarity/action that pushes on all fronts

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



Change Now, Vote Later
Political answers will come when we build a network of solidarity and action that pushes on all fronts for a true democracy.

by Nathan Schneider
posted Feb 28, 2012


There was a joke told during one of the warm-up actions the week before Occupy Wall Street began, across the street from the Stock Exchange: “How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?” None of the tourists watching hazarded a guess. The answer? “Politicians don’t change anything!”

It’s this kind of thinking that drove a few hundred protesters to transform the political discourse with their bodies last September by taking and holding a small park in downtown New York. But it’s also why the Occupy movement, at least in the short term, looks to be a good thing for someone like Mitt Romney—a man beautifully suited to play the role of law-and-order technocrat on behalf of the “silent majority,” and thereby to benefit from an election year noisy with unrest. Just think of the effect of the Greek and Spanish Occupation-based movements last year, whose agitations fragmented the Left and put the right wing in office. Or think of 1968 in the United States.

There’s another thing the Greeks and Spaniards have in common with the kids who made Occupy Wall Street happen, many of whom cheerfully knocked on doors and sparred with their parents on President Obama’s behalf in 2008 (as did I): They’ve learned that no matter which candidate you elect, the global financial system is going to find a way to stick it to you. Many in the movement think that the answers are not primarily to be found by joining a political machine already bought off by the corporate establishment. The answers lie in building a network of international solidarity and action that will push on all fronts for a truly democratic global politics and economy.

One of the things that made occupied Zuccotti Park such a refreshing place is that it was full of political conversations that had nothing to do with the personal foibles of elected officials or our various professional candidates. Rather, they were about the kinds of things that the Occupiers actually wanted for themselves and their communities—necessities of life and fairness, mostly—and how, then and there, they could start making it happen. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/9-strategies-to-end-corporate-rule/change-now-vote-later

[libtodeath]

1. We need to

embrace the term socialism and let it be known that it means all of is together for the common good.
Once that demon of the right has been exorcised then people will understand their vote should be what is in their best interest not some bloated corporation with false promises of making them wealthy while crushing them under a thumb.

[socialist_n_TN]

4. Yep. Socialism is merely the commons........

property held by everyone. But that's why we have to change ALL of the systems. You can't change the economic system without changing the political system and change to both of those systems will change the social system. It's all interrelated and it's all tied to the lack of economic democracy. Or IOW, socialism.

[mdmc]

2. ..

[mdmc]

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